Everyday Life and Resistance Practices in F-Type Prisons of Turkey
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EVERYDAY LIFE AND RESISTANCE PRACTICES IN F-TYPE PRISONS OF TURKEY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY SİBEL BEKİROĞLU IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY JULY 2016 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences _______________________ Prof. Dr. Meliha ALTUNIŞIK Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. _______________________ Prof. Dr. Sibel KALAYCIOĞLU Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. _______________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağatay TOPAL Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erdoğan YILDIRIM (METU, SOC) ______________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağatay TOPAL (METU, SOC) ______________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kemal COŞKUN (Ankara Uni, SOC) ______________________ ii PLAGIARISM I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last Name: Sibel Bekiroğlu Signature : iii ABSTRACT EVERYDAY LIFE AND RESISTANCE PRACTICES IN F-TYPE PRISONS OF TURKEY Bekiroğlu, Sibel M.S., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağatay Topal July 2016, 213 pages This study undertakes the analysis of everyday lives of the political prisoners in F- type prisons in reliance of the concept of “tactic” of Michel de Certeau. Based on isolation model, F-type prisons are high security prisons that were started to be used after 2000s. The establishment of F-type prisons is one of the important points in the recent political history of Turkey, which can be entitled as a direct intervention to the everyday lives of political prisoners. Based on the interviews and correspondence, this study discusses how political prisoners have organized their everyday lives convenient to this new isolation model and developed coping mechanisms for the problems arose in those incarceration places. The coping mechanisms of the prisoners are scrutinized according to four major features of the concept of tactic which are belonging to the place of other, invisibility, trickery and creativity. The thesis claims that these tactical practices are the resistance practices and the survival politics of the prisoners against the power which has a desire to cover everything. Key words: Everyday Life, Resistance, Tactics, F-type Prisons, Political Prisoners. iv ÖZ TÜRKİYE’NİN F-TİPİ HAPİSHANELERİNDE GÜNDELİK HAYAT VE DİRENİŞ PRATİKLERİ Bekiroğlu, Sibel Yüksek Lisans, Sosyoloji Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Çağatay Topal Temmuz 2016, 213 sayfa Bu çalışma F-tipi hapishanelerdeki siyasi tutsakların gündelik hayatını Michel de Certeau’nun taktik kavramını esas alarak analiz eder. Tecrit modeli üzerine kurulu F-tipi hapishaneler yüksek güvenlikli hapishaneler olup 2000li yıllardan sonra kullanılmaya başlanmıştır. F-tipi hapishanelerin açılması siyasi tutsakların gündelik hayatlarına doğrudan bir müdahale olarak adlandırılabilecek Türkiye’nin yakın siyasi tarihinde önemli noktalardan biridir. Mülakat ve yazışmalara dayanan bu çalışma siyasi tutsakların F-tipi tecrit modeline uygun olarak gündelik yaşamlarını nasıl örgütlediklerini ve bu kapatılma mekânlarında ortaya çıkan problemlere karşı ne tür baş etme mekanizmaları geliştirdiklerini tartışır. Bahsi geçen baş etme mekanizmaları taktik kavramının dört temel özelliğine göre incelenmiştir. Bu özellikler, başkasının mekânına ait olma, görünmezlik, kurnazlık ve yaratıcılıktır. Bu tez siyasi tutsakların taktiksel pratiklerinin, her şeyi kapsama arzusunda olan iktidara karşı geliştirdikleri bir direniş pratiği ve hayatta kalma politikası olduğunu iddia eder. Anahtar Kelimeler: Gündelik Hayat, direniş, taktikler, F-tipi hapishaneler, siyasi tutsaklar. v “… Ah , I wish you knew how much I love Köroğlu, karayılan, Meçhul asker, then Pir Sultan and Bedrettin. And many unwritten loves. And I wish you knew how much they loved me. I wish you knew the one, who fought in Urfa and how he would laugh to the death from minarets, from barricades from cypress trees. I really want you to know do you hear? Don’t feel so forlorn, Thus lamentable, such pitiful.. wherever you are, inside or outside, in classrooms, in desks be defiant. spit on the face of the hangman, on the face of the opportunist, the instigative, the treacherous.. resist with books. resist with work. with nails, with teeth, with hope, with love, with dreams resist don’t disgrace me. See, how I can be revived, with your young and honest hands. I have girls and boys in the future Any one of them is an indispensable piece of the world Any one of them is the blossom of my thousand years of longing From your eyes I kiss you from your eyes You are my only hope. Do you understand?” Ahmet Arif from a poem called “Anadolu” (Anatolia). vi DEDICATION To the ones who resist and do not give up “inside and outside, in classrooms, in desks” against the cruelty of the oppressors… To the “boys and girls” who wanted to bring peace to this land on bloody 10th October… To Mecit with whom I promise to see good days… vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis advisor Asst. Prof. Dr. Çağatay Topal, for his giving me the chance for the investigation of such an important issue in Turkey and his valuable comments and advices. I further need to express my gratitude to my dear jury members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kemal Coşkun and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erdoğan Yıldırım for their critical comments and valuable contributions to my work. As doubtlessly, friends made up an important part of the writing period of the thesis. My dear friends Sinem Erdal, Cemile Güngör Şen, Gül Öztürk, Cansu Okan, Didem Şalgam, Elif Yağmur Karagöl Demir, Dilek Çakır and Göknil Torun made me feel that they were always there whenever I need. If not for them, this process would definitely be unbearable, like every other process and moments would. I owe special thanks to my beloved friend Cemil Adıyaman without whom this study would not possible. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to him for his invaluable patience and encouragements and for everything that he has provided me. I am grateful to my dear friend Hüsnü Yıldız for his friendship and support. Although he was very busy, he did not refuse my challenging demands and has encouraged me whenever I had difficulties. My thanks are as well to Burcu Sarı, Merk Kükrer and Ulaş Nacar for their encouragement and support during the writing period of the thesis. I would like to thank to loving Deniz, Resmiye, Muhabbet, Ruken, Zeynep, Didem, Gülay, Aydın, Murat, Halit, Halil and Yılmaz for their valuable support and believing during the writing process. I feel their love and support in every moment in this period of writing. They are my heroes. viii I deeply thank to Aysun Telek, Berker Telek and their families for their support in my hard times and their valuable encouragement. I learnt a lot from them. I am deeply indebted to my parents, Seher Bekiroğlu and Hüseyin Bekiroğlu for their extraordinary patience and faith during the thesis writing process and also their believing and support in every moment in my life. I would also like to thank Ahmet Bekiroğlu and Açelya Bekiroğlu for their love and invaluable moral supports in this period. I appreciate TOHAV, ÖHD, HHB, TUAD, TAYAD, TUHAD-FED, İHD, CİSST for their kind attention to my thesis and their participation to my research. I would also like to thank my respondents which take part in my field. Their contributions had been very valuable for my study. Lastly, I cannot find sufficient words to express my gratitude to beloved Mecit Odlukaya who believed in this study and encouraged me all the time from the first days of the idea. Although I was a trouble sometimes, he handled my unbearable times without any single complaint. Without him, this study would not be possible. This work is supported by the Scientific Research Project Fund of Middle East Technical University under the project number BAP-07-03-2015-018. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM .......................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iv ÖZ .............................................................................................................................. v DEDICATION ......................................................................................................... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... viiix CHAPTER-I 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Statement of the Research Problem and Research Question........................... 1 1.2. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................... 6 1.3. Significance of the Research ......................................................................... 10 1.4. Background